Simple question. You are going to be exiled to an island to live alone forever, but there is a piano. You may take the piano scores of only one (1) composer to live the rest of your life with. Who would you take? See the poll.

_________________Eddy M. del Rio, MD"A smattering will not do. They must know all the keys, major and minor, and they must literally 'know them backwards.'" - Josef Lhevinne

Good grief, that's a hard one. I chose Chopin because I'd have plenty of Romantic piano music to play. I'd have even more with Bach, but with that great master I can only play so much before my brain tires.

_________________Though everything else may appear shallow and repulsive, even the smallest task in music is so absorbing, and carries us so far away from town, country, earth, and all worldly things, that it is truly a blessed gift of God.

Chopin for me too! Although I considered choosing Bach because I know if I was stuck being able to play ONLY his music, then I'd go crazy and maybe so desperate to get off the island that I'd build myself a raft (like Tom Hanks did in that movie) and go home.

_________________"Simplicity is the highest goal, achievable when you have overcome all difficulties." ~ Frederic Chopin

Having started the poll, I will now add my reason for voting Bach. Like others I'm sure, I find in him the greatest wedding of both the soul and the mind. I fell in love with "classical" music in 7th grade when I was required to listen to movements of his great B Minor Mass. Amazing! Of course many will know that his 2 volumes of the WTC are commonly called the "Old Testament" of pianism, with Beethoven's Sonatas the "New Testament." No one would dispute the intellectual rigors of his fugues, but his lyricism and emotion are also stupendous in for example the Preludes in E-flat minor and B-Flat minor from book 1. What is really fascinating, is that since the Baroque was followed by the Classical, it represents the more Dionysian of the two. Therefore, so far, folks are picking the more "romantic" impulses. The style eras seem to swing from one end to the other (Apollo [form, clarity, balance] to Dionysius [emotion,excess, liberty]), for the Trekies out there, the difference between Spock and Bones: view the 2nd Vienese school following the stretched-to-the-limit Post-Romantics!

_________________Eddy M. del Rio, MD"A smattering will not do. They must know all the keys, major and minor, and they must literally 'know them backwards.'" - Josef Lhevinne

Liszt, no doubt about it. Not only did he write my favourite transcription (that being my particular area of interest), his works manage to cover everything from sprituality to bombastic vulgarity; such an interestingly split compositional personality.

Good old Bach! So good for technique and so much of his is indeed lovely, but I must say his Well-Tempered Clavier is to me more a duty than a pleasure. I have taken a step backwards technically and prefer his toccatas and his inventions. Handel has a lot but so much of his is unknown. Mozart has some good moments and so has Schubert, but off-days with them are not unknown.

May I choose not to go to the lonely island?

_________________Richard Willmer"Please do not shoot the pianistHe is doing his best."Oscar Wilde: Impressions of America: Leadville

Interesting. As of yet, nobody has chosen Beethoven! There are moments in Bach which bring tears to my eyes, but not in his keyboard music. Though some of his organ music is off the charts, we only have a piano. Two very creative composers not mentioned from this period that have brought me endless hours of fun at the keyboard are Scarlatti and C.P.E Bach, and both of them wrote a lot of music. (I am rather stunned, but I don't think I have even heard any keyboard music by Handel!) Schubert, but not Schumann? Chopin and Liszt but not Rachmaninoff? Mendelssohn? Really? I would be very tempted to take the music of Debussy, with whom I feel great empathy. I could also easily live alone with Chopin, but the island would be too small for me and Liszt! (I would have to leave.) Of those listed, I probably WOULD choose Beethoven, but would be very tempted to choose Brahms, whose music I adore. In reality, I would more likely just improvise so that I could creatively make the adjustment as the piano, with the heat and humidity, gradually turned into a one-man gamalan.

Interesting. As of yet, nobody has chosen Beethoven! There are moments in Bach which bring tears to my eyes, but not in his keyboard music. Though some of his organ music is off the charts, we only have a piano. Two very creative composers not mentioned from this period that have brought me endless hours of fun at the keyboard are Scarlatti and C.P.E Bach, and both of them wrote a lot of music. (I am rather stunned, but I don't think I have even heard any keyboard music by Handel!) Schubert, but not Schumann? Chopin and Liszt but not Rachmaninoff? Mendelssohn? Really? I would be very tempted to take the music of Debussy, with whom I feel great empathy. I could also easily live alone with Chopin, but the island would be too small for me and Liszt! (I would have to leave.) Of those listed, I probably WOULD choose Beethoven, but would be very tempted to choose Brahms, whose music I adore. In reality, I would more likely just improvise so that I could creatively make the adjustment as the piano, with the heat and humidity, gradually turned into a one-man gamalan.

Yes, yes, yes, but a poll is limited to 10 items

_________________Eddy M. del Rio, MD"A smattering will not do. They must know all the keys, major and minor, and they must literally 'know them backwards.'" - Josef Lhevinne

If I were castaway on an island with a piano, I'd finally have the time to compose music - I'd be awed with inspiration from the sea around me, the poetic sunsets, and the heavenly night skies above. Not a bad idea for the dawn of an early retirement!

_________________"Nobility of spirit has more to do with simplicity than ostentation, wisdom rather than wealth, commitment rather than ambition." ~Riccardo Muti

In the end I had to go with Beethoven. I love Bach, but, as someone above indicated, after a while my brain would hurt. Also I would want something written more specifically for the piano.

Also with Beethoven I get a great marriage between the classical and romantic spirits. Beethoven's formal structures are in the classical mold. He follows the classical ideals of balance and restraint (there are no notes or harmonies that do not belong in his structures). On the other hand he took those ideals to the limit infusing that classical mold with romantic expression.

That is as crude and stupid a statement as I have ever heard. I've played a good deal of his piano output and, while it may not be in the Brahms or Chopin class, and it does not always lie well under the fingers, there is a wealth of beauty there. And if anybody says that Dvorak had no affinity with the piano I dare them to listen to the piano concerto and the 4-hand slavonic dances.

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